One Bond
by Kitsune Foxfire
Summary: One shot set after Shanks saves Luffy from the Sea King, but before he leaves the island. Semi-followup of Restful Port. Shanks and Garp have a nice "chat". K  for mild cursing.


**Kitsune: I seriously need to finish my one story. I know, I know! Anyway. This is another One Piece One shot, Shanks again. semi-contiuation of _Restful Port_ but a stand-alone. hope you enjoy. Notes at bottom of story to explain logic if you want um.**

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><p>It hurt. It hurt a lot more then Shanks thought it had any right to. <em>And I had to be a 'real' man and say no to the painkillers. Stupid Luffy, going to be the death of me at this rate. <em>Shanks sighed, reaching behind himself and readjusting the pillow, _Seriously, the boy has some ridiculous ideas on what a pirate is capable of dealing with. _"Then again, I guess I don't have to be encouraging him, humm?" he finished the thought out-lound as Yasopp came into the room.

"Who? Oh, you mean Luffy, Captain?" Yasopp laughed, "You should hear him go on about how cool pirates are, able to deal with any pain... " his expression became bitter, "Ca...Shanks, if it hurts, you should take something. You lost your arm, for Christ sakes! I mean, any of us would have done the same to save Luffy...but it hurts us that you're..."

"What? Hurt?" Shanks gestured at the bandages covering his shoulder. The doctors, both his ship doctor and the village doctor, had decided to amputate the remainder of the limb just the other day. Not that he could blame him, the wound had started to show signs of infection. "Crippled? I know that's what you're thinking Yasopp. 'how can our Captain, a swordsman, survive without his dominant arm?' right?"

"NO! Not at all! Shanks, I'm surprised at you! You should know the men and I, we have complete faith in you. This, this is just another challenge for you to overcome."

Shanks laughed, "Ahhh, Yasopp, my friend, when you're right you're right. No point in wallowing in self-pity. what's done is done, and it's not like I don't have one good arm left. I'll just need to work on my skills again." He grinned, "Besides, what's an arm or two compared to the life of a young friend? Now. I know you didn't come here to cheer my up with just words. Quit holding out on me and give me that Sake you've got hidden behind your back."

Yasopp returned his Captain and long time friends grin, "the doctor did say no alcohol, you know."

"It's not Alcohol then! It's healing water!" they both laughed as the marksman passed over the flask. "See? I feel better already! So, how is the little brat, anyway?"

"Well, the mayor's making him eat right now, but I'm betting he'll slip out from under his watch soon enough and show up here. I'd give it an hour tops. Kid's really torn up about the whole thing. Makino has told him not to wake you up if you're sleeping, and I think he'll actually listen."

"Any signs of that shitty Marine?" The flask was almost empty, and Shanks was starting to feel a little sleepy._ Bastard lased it with something again... _he gave his crewmate a look to let him know that he knew the Sake was drugged.

Yasopp shrugged, but in response to the look, and to the question, "He shouldn't be due for at least another week or two, if he's keeping with the same schedual. Besides, the newspaper said today that there was some trouble over in the south blue, so I'd expect he'd be there." by this point Shank's head was starting to bob as the sedative took effect, "Enjoy your nap, Captain." Yassop grinned as he left the room, shutting the door right before the empty flask hit it.

_Worse then a...fucking baby-sitter. I really should have dragged his ass back home this trip. That would'a taught him who was boss...his wife! Ah well...might as well get some sleep. Luffy'll wake me up soon enough I bet._

Shanks felt kinda fuzzy as he woke up. Not surprising with the combination of hard alcohol and drugs he took before passing out, and actually, it was kind of pleasant. Idly he wondered where Luffy was before noticing a weight on his thigh. Experimentally, and without opening his eyes he reached down and felt around._ Humm...lets see, lets see...uh, I think that's a foot. much to small to be mine, or one of the crews...lets see what else...a face?..._ he heard a snore, _Yep, it's Luffy. Let's just hope he doesn't kick me... _that thought, combined with how active a sleeper Luffy was, motivated Shanks to look down at the boy sleeping on top of him. The boy was curled up, fast asleep on Shanks' legs. One of his sandals had gone off at one point was was perched precariously on the side of the bed. It was obvious the dark haired little monkey had been crying in his sleep.

"oy, Luffy..." Shanks whispered, poking the kid to no avail. "Shit. Luffy..." he tried again. Now that he was awake, or at least one-third awake, and hung over, he really needed to go to the bathroom, and thanks to Luffy, he was stuck. "Hey. Come on kid, get up!" He almost shouted, to which Luffy's head popped up.

"Eh? Shanks?" the boy sleepily rubbed his dark eyes, "What is it?"

"I need you to get off me for a minute, ok?"

"m'k..." Luffy sleepily climbed off his hero's legs and promptly feel back asleep at the foot of the bed, butt in the air.

"Yesh...the boy is sure freaky." Looking out the window, the captain could tell that it was just a bit after dawn, meaning that the Mayor had let Luffy sleep in the spare room with Shanks. Once again, the pirate marveled at how insistent the pirate-hating mayor had been that he took the spare room. He wondered if he should make it his new goal to rescue someone at each port for free lodging and food.

Admittedly Shanks wasn't exactly paying attention when he came back into the bedroom. The first thing he noticed was that Luffy was no longer pulling an ostrich at the end of the bed, but was instead tucked in. The second thing he noticed was Garp. "Ah, Crap." he rubbed his head, "It's way to early in the morning for this, you shitty Marine."

Garp just grinned, "I'm sure that it has nothing to do with your hangover, pirate scum."

"Well, that might have something to do with it," granted the pirate, "but still, can't you wait till a reasonable hour to threaten me? Oh well, let's just get this over with."_ Blah blah blah, pirate-scum leave Luffy alone...I'll show you...too much work to have a fleet come here...yadda yadda...same thing every month he visits. Who the hell is he kidding, anyway?_

Garps eyes turned deadly, "Shanks. I thought I told you if you hurt Luffy I'd kill you." _Ah crap. He's heard about what happened. _"Luffy is my cute little grandson, and I won't stand to have pirates put his life at risk."

_I'm so dead..._ "What are you talking about? Luffy's fine!" The marine looked from his grandson, snoring away, to the bandages over Shank's shoulder. "This? This is nothing! Luffy had nothing to do with... just another day at sea, right?"_ Stupid stupid, he's totally not going to believe that, I'm going to KILL the mayor for ratting me out._

"Fool!" hissed the Vice admiral, "Don't you DARE downplay what you've paid to keep my boy safe." _huh?_ The next words looked like they actually pained Garp, "You saved Luffy. I can't say I'm happy about being indebted to a pirate, but the fact remains. Yeah, you're somewhat to blame but those bandits were true idiots going after a Yonkou."

"Wait, how am I to blame at all for this?"

"Because you're a pirate."

"...that makes no sense, you know that right?"

Garp ignored him, instead just watching Luffy sleep. A moment or two passed in silence. "I'll have to talk to Dadan about this incident."

"Dandan? you've mentioned her before, right?" Come to think of it...I know that name from somewhere else...

Garp looked guilty for a moment before answering, "Dadan...she's a friend, I guess. Leads a Mountain Bandit crew. Bit of a coward, but one hell of a woman none the less."

"Ah. I see."_don't wanna know, don't wanna know... _"Wait! Dadan...not the Dadan who was wanted for overthrowing a nation, like 10 years ago?"

Garp started to laugh but stopped himself quickly so as not to wake up Luffy, "Who would believe that shit? Dadan's a bandit, that's all. I'm going to have her watch Luffy for me starting tomorrow."

Shanks sat down heavily on the bed, "What? Why? Luffy's home is here, isn't it? And besides, how cruel can you be to the kid? He almost was killed by bandits, and now you want him to live with some?" he glared at the older man, "How do I know that this Dadan the bandit isn't responsible for what happened? I'll kill you before I'd let you put Luffy in that kind of danger."

"You? Kill me? In this state?" Garp waved a hand, indicating the bandages, "Not to mention I'm his grandfather. What kind of man are you threatening to kill a boy's grandfather?"

"This injury won't stop me, and you know it, Garp. I'll take Luffy out to sea with me."

"No, you will NOT! He will not be a pirate, Luffy's going to be a Marine!"

"mmmm Gramps...I don...PIRATE!" Luffy muttered in his sleep, both men just stared at the boy before laughing quietly, hostility forgotten.

"That shitty little grandson of mine..." Garp sighed, "I know that Dadan had nothing to do with those bandits, and she'll help rout out any others there may be. As for sending Luffy to her, on the one hand, he'll get stronger."

Shanks wisely decided not to point out that compared to a normal child his age, Luffy was already really strong. He'd noticed while he was with Roger that D.'s had a completely different idea on what 'strong' was. Besides, they'd had that conversation after Garp discovered Luffy had eaten the Gum Gum fruit.

"On the other hand..."Garp ran a hand though his graying hair, "It's safer, I think. Garp looked at the younger man, ignoring the shock he saw on his face, "I want him to be safe. It's only natural, I guess, I'm his grandfather after all. Being here, he's been safe enough, I suppose. But then with you showing up, and now the bandits...I'm not a smart man, but even I can see that some day, someone might show up who wants to hurt me, or his father. I might not be around to protect him from that. I was lucky this time, you were here. God I can't believe I just said that. If you hadn't been though...Luffy would've done something to piss them off, I'm sure. And without me, or you, or anyone else around, he'd've end up dead."

_His boys really are everything to him..._ Shanks thought, realizing for the first time that this was why Luffy was here, and not on a Marine base. There, he'd be a target for everyone who had issues with Garp or Dragon. True, Shanks himself had originally thought that keeping the kid company was a good way to mess with Garp, but he didn't really have anything against Garp, not anymore. He'd never had hurt Luffy, even before they had become friends.

"Someone once told me," Garp continued, confirming Shanks' line of thought, "That children are often blamed for what their fathers did. He had said that a child should be blameless for their parents deeds, and allowed to be themselves. God knows I've tried to keep that idea alive on this island."

The red haired man sighed, thinking back to the pandemonium over the mere idea of Rodger having a kid, he could easily understand why Garp would go out of his way to keep the Marines off the island. Being Garp's grandson would protect him some, maybe...but enough to cancel out being Dragon's _son_?

"So I'll take him to Dadan's." Garp returned to the original line of thought, "He'll get stronger on the mountain. Plenty of things to fight. He'll find a playmate or two, I'm sure. Maybe then all this talk of pirates will stop."

"I wouldn't bet on it." Shanks grinned, "That Luffy, he's really stubborn, just like his gramps." Shanks picked up his hat from the bedpost and put it on, "Well then, I guess I better get the crew together. We'll be heading out this afternoon, if you'd care to see us off."_ A day or two early, but who cares, we've been ready for a while now._ "I'm going to see if Luffy'll join us on our adventure." He exited the room and held the door for Garp.

"I need to get things squared away here, so I won't be joining you," Garp took the door handle from Shanks and closed the door, "Don't you even think about turning Luffy into a pirate." He strode out the house, "Take care, Pirate-scum. See you too soon, I'm sure."

"Count on it." Came the laughing response.

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><p><strong>Ok, the notes:<strong>

**1) Yeah, I totally made up that bit about Dadan. Why not? I mean, really, we don't know how she knows Garp, and I really wouldn't be shocked to find out she was in trouble with the world government for something (that I'm sure she was involved in but wasn't resposible for)**

**2) Garp was power-phrasing his conversation with Rodger. I would think not only did Roger convince him to watch after his own child, but Garp would remeber his words when presented with Luffy (No idea why Garp has Luffy though...that's a totally different story)**

**3) Shanks doesn't know about Ace. The "boys" comment is in reference to _Restful Port._ ****Shanks's assumption that Garp's "boys" are his son and grandson.**


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